Suddenly, she was on her feet, and a man stood beside her. A man he should know, but he didn’t give a shit. The man didn’t have a heartbeat and smelled like rain and dirt. The man said … something. Something that didn’t matter.
Then the woman ran.
In a desperate, hungry surge, he pulled himself out of the patch. She was what he needed. She was asource. That was all that mattered. He chased, and exhilaration joined his hunger.
As she fled, she stumbled over smooth stones as if she couldn’t see them, but they were in plain sight. He vaulted over a large rock and cut her off. Her hands were bound, which made grabbing her easier. He didn’t care that she had something in her mouth. Her blood was in her veins, her neck. She wriggled in his grasp, fighting like a fish already drawn into the air.
With a snarl, he took hold of her hair and wrenched her head to the side. Her pulse jumped in her throat. He sank his fangs into her soft flesh.
Delicious, mind-bending liquid filled his mouth. He was made of stardust and darkness, and the blood fueled his journey. He clutched her close and moaned as he swallowed each wondrous spurt of warmth. It dripped into that burning, aching void inside him. Finally, his throat was soothed.
If you keep going, you’ll kill her, a rational voice whispered. His voice. Zack frowned and drank more. Who would he kill?The woman.
But he still had an ache in him, and the blood was soperfect. And coming so fast.
Stop!
He growled, angry at that voice. He drank. Her heartbeat was quick and loud, and he raced against it. Then it skipped. And the skip became longer.
She’s dying.
Startling clarity struck Zack as if someone had activated a breaker in a darkened house. He broke away from the woman and released her. She sagged to the ground.
She was near dead. Technically alive, but not for long.Wasted blood.
No. No, he couldn’t have possibly thought that. Zack backed away, smacking his ass into a nearby headstone. Headstone?Fuck, I’m in a cemetery. He held on to the granite while his mind caught up to the world. The plethora of sensations that came with reality threatened to overwhelm him.
His hunger wasn’t fully satisfied. It lingered like a ghost teasing the corners of his sight—present and unwilling to leave him alone or step into focus.
He had her blood all over his chin, on his shirt. And this suit he was wearing felt awful and wasn’t anything he’d ever owned. Every fragment of dirt on him was a grain of sand rubbing against tender flesh. Too much of it coated him; he couldn’t easily knock it off.
Her heartbeat was slowing further.
“No,” Zack cried. He rushed forward.
Seamus stepped in front of him. Zack could track his movement and tried to step around him, but Seamus remainedthat fraction faster and caught him by the arms. “Ah, ah. Let’s not have any accidents.”
“Accidents?” Zack demanded. “She needs help!”
“The last thing we want is for you to try to feed her your blood to ‘help’ her,” Seamus replied sharply.
“We need to put pressure on the wound.”
“She’sgone, Zackery. The way she should be.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Zack yanked backward.
Seamus let him go. “It has been a thousand years since I was a father. Don’t make me ruin this joyous occasion by punishing you, son.”
Son?Zack ran through the information that he’d gathered on Seamus over the last few months. Though he would have had more details with his notebooks in front of him, he realized he could recall his notes faster and with better clarity than he ever had—and his Grandma Bonnie had always called him one of the brightest hunters of his generation.Wait, do vampiresthinkfaster than mortals? What the fuck?He stashed that question for later research.
He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t refer to any of your sirelings as your children. What’s your game?”
“Souls as special as yours are rare, Zackery,” Seamus replied.
Meaning that Seamus saw a killer in Zack.Just like me, little bro, Cal’s voice said.But he’s got you switching sides.
I’m not the same as him. Zack slid his hand behind his back and under his suit jacket.
